MB Hanrahan

MB Hanrahan

Performance documentation, Live Performance, Mural Art

If there is something unique about MB Hanrahan’s art, it would be that she accommodates the opportunity a site provides her, devising an art methodology best suited to create an impact. Her "art form", which manifests as many art forms, is generally participatory, employing materials and methods in effective but unusual ways. The artist pushes the "envelope" of collaborating institutions involved in an artwork, and the artwork is then often completed by an audience. The crowning glory of making an Art Car, according to the artist, is the reaction of people as she drives by.

Hanrahan often refers to herself as a public artist rather than focusing on a particular medium. She means ‘public’ in the sense that one will more likely see her work along streets and in other public spaces. The artist tends to be invited to create site-specific artwork for exhibitions, as with one of her pieces in Bad Exhibition: Value in Art. Also in Bad are her nude photographs from her Body of Works series. Her art is a response to what needs to be done somewhere, rather than insisting on a particular look of its own. Her resume is long, because she works hard as an artist. Known as a regional artist, her mural artworks can be found throughout Southern California. Her mail art project, Body of Works disseminates far and wide.